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Kraena Pre-Health
Career Library

Therapy & Rehab

Art Therapist (ATR)

Uses art-making inside a therapeutic relationship, often with trauma that patients cannot yet put into words.

Years after high school

6-7

Degree

Master's degree

Entrance exam

Portfolio review and program-specific requirements

Median pay

BLS does not publish a standalone national median for art therapists. Compensation varies by clinical setting, licensure path, and region.

What the job is actually like

Sessions where a patient draws, paints, or sculpts while you observe, respond, and interpret alongside them. Common settings are psychiatric units, schools, veterans' programs, and community mental health, often with trauma histories.

The path

  1. 01Bachelor's degree with studio art and psychology coursework
  2. 02Master's in art therapy or counseling with an art therapy specialisation
  3. 03Supervised postgraduate clinical hours
  4. 04ATR then ATR-BC credentialing; counseling licensure in many states

Good fit if

  • You have a real art practice and genuine clinical interest
  • You want to work with people who cannot yet talk about what happened to them
  • You can hold heavy material without carrying it home

Think twice if

  • You need a clearly defined job market and title
  • You would resent needing a separate counseling license to be hireable
  • Modest pay after a master's would be a problem

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Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP)

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All salary figures here are median annual wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the most recent full national dataset. 'Median' means half of workers earn more and half earn less. Three things to keep in mind: (1) pay varies enormously by state, city, setting, and experience — a nurse in California and a nurse in rural Alabama earn very different salaries; (2) training lengths are typical, not guaranteed, and programs differ; (3) these numbers change every year. Always verify current figures at bls.gov/ooh before making a decision. For context, the BLS median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a median of $86,530 — one of the reasons health care is such a stable field.